In Good Company: Sharon & Sayu Sinha
At the beginning of 2022, Sharon & Sayu Sinha made headlines by transforming a derelict Ealing house into a completely unrecognisable perfect family home. Their Instagram account @that_ealing_feeling, which now has over 30k followers, shows their wonderful interiors journey which inspired them to develop Room AI, to help people develop their own houses (read more on page 24 of the Autumn issue). We spoke to them about what they love about Ealing and their favourite local haunts.
At what stage in your life did you first move to Ealing? (childhood, as a young adult, as a parent...)
We started looking for houses in Ealing about five years ago when our daughter started secondary school here. We fell in love with the area, the architecture, and parks. We had some friends in the area who were really welcoming and took time to help sell the delights of Ealing to us !
During our search we found a beautiful house with a lovely garden just over 3 years ago and were lucky enough to manage to buy it. There was a lot of work to be done as the house had not been touched in 25 years but we were excited to make this into our family home. We spent about a year taking the house back to brick (there was lots to do!) ,undergoing a full renovation (we are property developers :)). So officially we moved in just over two years ago with our daughter. We didn’t know a huge amount about it but we have a few friends here and there is always something new in Ealing on a regular basis. We have loved it ever since…
If you were telling someone about Ealing who had never visited, how would you describe it?
You can describe Ealing like the cool kid in school as it effortlessly balances traditional and trendiness. It's a delightful corner of London with a great combination of historical parts, modern charm and quirky corners.The architecture is a blend of elegant Victorian houses standing alongside chic, new age apartments.
The heart of the town, Ealing Broadway is always bustling from early morning until the late hours and is complimented by some great green spaces. It’s a really warm and comforting neighbourhood. Most shops you need are within a stones throw and your likely to bump into a friendly neighbour if you are going for a walk or going for a bit of shopping. There are some lovely pubs and cafes to meet the local friends for a coffee.
It's an amazing community and we have never experienced this anywhere else in London. We have an amazing network of friends through our neighbourhood, the school and cafes, restaurants and independent shops we visit. People really care and that makes it special.
Favourite watering hole
Definitely Drayton Court. It has great vibes from the minute you step in. It's got amazing architect with grand intricate details and the ambiance is warm and comforting like a hug from an old friend. The interior oozes coziness with a crackling fireplace that warms you from the cold outside. It’s a great place to gather fro a families to get together and as well as meeting new friends at the music nights t really is a hub of social interaction.
Best Meal in Ealing
There are so many to choose from. Our top three would be
Ta ke (Japanese Restaurant) – The food quality is amazing and just as good as some of the good restaurants in central London we like to go to.
Laguna – Consistently great Indian food, definitely worth a visit and they do a great Sunday buffet.
Santa Maria – love the atmosphere and the pizza tastes amazing. Defo have the Tiramasu as its not to be missed!
And now Comptoir Libanais has just opened so looking forward to that.
Favourite Independent Store in Ealing
We love Artisan the coffee place on New Broadway – you can even learn about coffee in their School at the back!! The coffee tastes superb.
West Ealing Timber is also really good and has all the supplies you need and the staff are super helpful.
Is there a part of Ealing that you find particularly inspirational or where you find peace?
We love going for walks and so often choose different routes towards Ealing Broadway and Pitzhanger. We love looking at the different architecture of the beautiful houses, the different driveways and gardens and speculating on who lives there! We also see regular walkers or people walking their dogs so its another way to get to know the locals.
We find walking and admiring the roads and houses really therapeutic and gives us a chance to brainstorm things that we need to do as a family and get some inspiration from the outdoors.
Tell us what you're up to & what's next for you.
So we are super busy with lots going on. Fundamentally, we are residential property experts so we invest and design interior spaces. We have just finished our own back to brick renovation (@That Ealing Feeling) and have just launched our app "ROOM AI" (RoomAI.co.uk) which allows people who are interested in decorating their homes to see what their own rooms like in a multitude of different themes ranging from modern classic to shabby chic. It helps give inspiration to those of us living busy lives who may need a helping hand.